Episode 1 (S1)
Characters In Order of Appearance *Takuya Miyagawa *Eiichiro Maruo *Yukichi Fukazawa *Eiichiro Maruo *Kojirou Kageyama *Natsu Takasaki *Yuki Tajima *Coach Morimoto *Masumi Makihara *Hana Yokoyama *Yusaku Miura *Takuma Egawa Summary Natsu goes to Eiichiro's class to borrow some historical notes from her friend. She decides to borrow his notes instead, calling him weird. Eiichiro visits the Southern Tennis Club and encounters Natsu again, learning that she desires to become a pro player. Synopsis After the teacher ends his lesson, he writes another problem on the board and asks Eiichiro, an honor student, to solve it. Eiichiro manages to solve the problem easily which is already expected by his classmates and the teacher. During lunch time, while Kageyama and Eiichiro talk about their eating habits, Natsu appears in their classroom to ask one of their classmate for her notes. She suggests to borrow Eiichiro's notes instead. As Natsu checks the notes, she finds it incredible to the point that it is weird but she still asks Eiichiro for the notes. Since Eiichiro does not have copy for the notes, he instead lends his original copy. Unfortunately, the notes get dirty after Natsu falls and ends up spilling the lunch on it. She cleans the notes roughly and apologizes at Eiichiro while smiling cutely which captivates the boys except Eiichiro. While going home, after Kageyama consoles Eiichiro for what Natsu had done earlier, Kageyama asks if Eiichiro has joined a club. Eiichiro plans to do exercise at least once a week instead of joining a club in order to stay in shape. Kageyama wonders if Eiichiro has truly enjoyed his life, as if he just following a track but Eiichiro casually dismisses this thought. Eiichiro checks the flyers he has and considers to try tennis as his exercise. Eiichiro is surprised when he sees the facilities of Southern Tennis Club (STC). As he checks the indoor courts, he is shocked to see Natsu playing at the court. His surprise continues when he sees how good the players are in the court. While watching, a kid approaches him and suspects him a spy, calling everyone's attention in the court. As Eiichiro tries to stop Yuki from making a fuss, Natsu appears and recognizes Eiichiro. Natsu introduces Eiichiro to everyone. After Yuki leaves, Natsu hears from Eiichiro the reason he is at STC, commenting him to be weird again. Coach Morimoto suggests Eiichiro to try the free trial and lets him borrow the tennis equipment available at STC. Eiichiro joins everyone on the warm-up but passes out as he cannot keep up on its intensity. After regaining consciousness, Natsu inquires his condition and his plans after this. She also asks if Eiichiro likes to study, in which Eiichiro tells her that he does not really enjoy it that much. Natsu is surprised with the answer as Eiichiro gives a lot of effort on his notes. She tells Eiichiro that she enjoys playing tennis more than studying and her plans of becoming a professional tennis player. The next day, the teacher congratulates Eiichiro for having a perfect score at their quiz. Unfortunately, Eiichiro cannot recover his quiz paper because of his muscle pain. During their cleaning duty, while Kageyama teases Eiichiro from having muscle pain, Natsu calls Eiichiro to deliver a message from Coach Morimoto. She also tells Eiichiro to keep her tennis dream a secret. Later, while Eiichiro is still on cleaning duty, he sees Natsu leaves the school premises, together with Takuma, an upperclassman. He continues to look until Natsu looks at his direction, causing him to be surprised and hides. Manga & Anime Differences *At the start of the anime, it shows a glimpse of the match between Eiichiro and Miyagawa on the Kanagawa Junior Tennis Circuit, the second time Eiichiro participates. *Eiichiro's notes in the anime contain the rules related to square roots. In the manga, it is related to polynomials. *The person seated in front of Eiichiro is different in the manga and anime. *In the anime, the boys wear blazers while in the manga, they wear gakuran. *When Natsu calls Eiichiro's notes weird, in the anime, Kageyama falls in his chair laughing while in the manga, he is laughing but he did not fall to his chair. *In the manga, Eiichiro's mother is the one who told him to join a tennis club. In the anime, a flyer about tennis is already included among the flyers Eiichiro had for consideration. * The scenes that are only present in the manga: ** Mentioning that the class scene happens at Eiichiro's second week in high school. ** Kageyama takes Eiichiro's tamago before Natsu appears to ask for World History notes. ** Kageyama complaining to Eiichiro because Eiichiro cleans even the smallest areas of the windows. ** One of the schoolmates mentioning Takuma's name. Navigation Category:Episodes Category:Introduction to the Tennis World Arc Category:Volume 1 (DVD) (S1) Category:Season 1